Memorial service for Richard R. Randall FE’79: April 11, 2015

Richard R. Randal FE’79 passed away on March 14th, 2015 at the age of 89. Dick was on our ECWG Steering Committee for 10 years (1998-2007) and Chair of our Education Committee for nine of those years.

A memorial service was held at 11:00 AM on April the 11th, 2015 at the Cleveland Congregational Church, 3400 Lowell Street, NW, Washington, DC. where Dick was a member for 40 years.

Dr. Randall was awarded the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman Badge, and four Battle Stars for his service in WWII in Europe. He received his PhD in geography from Clark University in 1955 and was a Fulbright scholar.

After a few years with the Central Intelligence Agency he became the Washington representative for Rand McNally and Company. There he designed the first series of maps showing the world’s ocean and water bodies in Rand’s major atlas: the Cosmopolitan Atlas.

From 1973 to his retirement in 1993 he worked as Geographer, Defense Mapping Agency (now the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency). He served as the Executive Secretary for the US Board on Geographic Names.

In 2001 Dr. Randall published “Place Names: How They Define the World and More.”

“He demonstrated how place names have become
essential elements of our everyday vocabulary, and are
ingredients of music and literature. He explored the
political importance of place names in military and
diplomatic matters and described various disputed and
controversial location names. A section is devoted to his work on the importance of identifying and naming undersea features” (AAG).

Dr. Randall remained an active member of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, the American Geographical Society, the Association of American Geographers, the Cosmos Club, and the Explorers Club.

Mt. Randall, Antarctica,named after Richard Rainier Randall.

His middle name, Rainier, came from his relative Admiral Peter Rainier, after whom Mount Rainier was named. One year after his retirement the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names named a 3,000 meter mountain on the southern most continent Mount Randall in recognition of his contributions to geographic names worldwide.

Dick Randall will be remembered for his passion for singing in the Cleveland Park Congregational Church Choir as well as high his contributions to the Association American Geographers Careers in Geography program.